Dear Mines community,

Colorado School of Mines is pleased to be able to hold in-person commencement celebrations for our graduates next month in a format that adheres to the most current state and local health and safety protocols for graduation ceremonies.

Mines will host a total of four in-person ceremonies May 13-15, all of which will be held outdoors, rain or shine, at Marv Kay Stadium:

  • 2 p.m. Thursday, May 13: Spring 2021 Graduate Commencement
  • 9 a.m. Friday, May 14: Spring 2021 Undergraduate Commencement (Civil & Environmental Engineering, Geology & Geological Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Petroleum Engineering, Geophysics, Applied Mathematics & Statistics, Economics & Business, and Engineering, Design & Society)
  • 1 p.m. Friday, May 14: Spring 2021 Undergraduate Commencement (Mining Engineering, Metallurgical & Materials Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Chemical & Biological Engineering, Chemistry, Physics, and Computer Science)
  • 10 a.m. Saturday, May 15:  Special ceremony honoring all Class of 2020 graduates (undergraduate and graduate)

All attendees will be strongly encouraged to wear a face mask at all times, but in line with updated campus, city and county policies, masks will only be required while indoors. Graduates will wear masks when they line up to enter the ceremony and when they are approaching the stage, but will be able to remove their masks once they are at their seats or walking across the stage. Masks and hand sanitizer will also be available.

To ensure appropriate social distancing, tickets are required for all guests. Graduates can request four tickets each for Undergraduate Commencement (and potentially more, as available) and up to eight tickets each for Graduate Commencement and for the Class of 2020 celebration. Guests will be seated in pods, identified by the name of the graduate on their ticket. All seating, for pods and for graduates, will be six feet apart. All facilities will also be sanitized between ceremonies.

For those who are unable to attend in person, a live webcast will be available on the Mines YouTube channel for all four ceremonies. Colorado School of Mines Board of Trustees President Thomas Jorden ’80, president and chief executive officer of Cimarex Energy Co., will be the speaker at the undergraduate ceremonies.

Call for volunteers: We need your help
All that said, Mines can’t make this happen without the help of our amazing community members. Volunteers are needed for all of the traditional commencement roles – ushers, ticket takers, program distribution, golf cart drivers, student line-up and more – at all four ceremonies May 13-15. Sign up here to volunteer for Spring Commencement.

To protect you and our guests, face masks will be required for volunteers when social distancing cannot be maintained. Any last-minute schedule changes will be sent to graduates via Mines Alert and posted online. All commencement details are available at commencement.mines.edu.

Thank you – and congratulations!
We are so excited to celebrate our May 2021 graduates, as well as the Class of 2020, together in person next month in as safe a setting as possible. Our students have worked hard toward achieving their goals and deserve a commencement celebration that highlights those achievements. Mines will continue to work closely with local health officials to ensure all the latest health and safety guidelines for graduation ceremonies are considered as we finalize all of the details.

Thank you again for all of your hard work over the past year that has made this moment possible. As other universities plan for virtual commencement ceremonies, we will be celebrating in person – and that is due to you and your unwavering commitment to Mines and the health and safety protocols that protect our community.

Regards,

Lisa Elson
Director of Commencement & Special Events
President’s Office